Interview with Mr. Oh Chang Jin, Secretary General of ITF HQ Korea

Choi Jung Hwa, who turned himself in to South Korean authority in 2008, is accused of breaking the laws on obstruction of business, trademark law, and unfair competition and trade secrets. According to a report from a legal professional on Sept. 1, Oh Chang Jin (CJ), the Secretary General of ITF HQ Koreaaccused him of violation of the law on obstruction of business, trademark law, and unfair competition as well as breaching trade secrets. It will also be stated that he is going to be accused of fraud.

According to the complaint, as a son of the late Choi Hong Hi, (the former president of ITF, who passed away in 2002 and is buried at People’s Martyrs Mausoleum in Pyongyang, North Korea), Choi Jung Hwa acquainted himself with Oh Chang Jin (CJ) letting him know he was the son of Choi Hong Hi when Oh Chang Jin (CJ) visited Canada in 2002. During Oh Chang Jin (CJ)’s stay in Canada, Choi Jung Hwa expressed the desire to help ITF HQ Korea that had already been established in the homeland of Taekwondo. He asked Oh Chang Jin (CJ) to promote his presence in South Korea because he wished to go back to South Korea after turning himself in to the South Korean authorities for his previous conviction of conducting espionage for the North Korean Government. To achieve this goal he needed the help and support of the ITF body in South Korea, which Oh Chang Jin (CJ) provided for 10 years. Using this support Choi Jung Hwa pretended to be the President of ITF HQ Korea throughout the world, and has deceived and cheated Oh Chang Jin (CJ) by dumping financial burden on him. Furthermore, with the help of ITF HQ Korea, it would appear his criminal charges were suspended when he delivered himself to the South Korean authorities in 2008.

According to another source even though Choi supported some international events organized by ITF HQ Korea he subsequently violated the law by establishing an organization named ITF Korea in conspiracy with a former staff member of ITF HQ Korea.

Exclusive interview with the representative of complaint side

Q: Can you tell us a little about the history of the International Taekwondo Federation?

A: Taekwondo was born in South Korea in 1955, the ITF was established by Choi Hong Hi in 1966, and it has been exclusively active outside South Korea since 1972 because Master Choi Hong Hi was forced into exile in political conflict with the Park Jung Hee administration. For this reason ITF Taekwondo was spread abroad more than in South Korea. When I met Choi Hong Hi in 2000 he asked me to re-introduce it to South Korea which I did. After the death of Choi Hong Hi in 2002, the ITF fractured into two bodies, one controlled from North Korea and another body that was associated with South Korea. This was because there was a conflict between the parties of the South and the North to become the head of ITF which at that time had tens of millions of members. Since then ITF HQ Korea has held a number of international events and has more than 150 member countries.

Q: Is Choi Jung Hwa a president of ITF?

A: Prior to the passing of Choi Hong Hi in 2002 I felt a strange atmosphere because there were disagreements between Choi Hong Hi and Choi Jung Hwa. But I didn’t take much notice because Choi Jung Hwa had been acting as a president of ITF by holding a general meeting of ITF at that time, and ITF HQ Korea and I was too busy to prepare for the meeting in those days.

Since then ITF has been at odds with North Korea and I have worked to bring its return to South Korea. However in 2002, Choi Jung Hwa was not permitted to enter South Korea. In the ensuing years a number of trademark claims on the ITF brand were being challenged throughout the world but were not conducted in Korea until 2008. To my knowledge now during this time Choi Jung Hwa did not hold the legal right to this brand name in any organizations related to Taekwondo. However at the time I was not aware that Choi was never registered as the legal president of any Taekwondo organization in the world. Seen by his actions, it was natural that he was considered to be the president of the legally registered bodies in the U.K. or Canada with which associated.

In 2003 he lost his trademark suit against other organizations related to Taekwondo even in Canada where he lived. All the private information of the practitioners who applied for the certificates issued in the name of Choi Jung Hwa were accumulated in his co-workers’ databases. ITF HQ Korea had nothing to do with this. Nonetheless by his actions he made people believe that he was the president of ITF HQ Korea.

Furthermore, for the last 10 years, he deceived and created a big financial burden to me. He did not even pay a dollar towards ITF HQ Korea’s operational expenses at any time. Much of the operating cost has been covered by the board and members of ITF HQ Korea. In an interview with reporters in Korea, Choi Jung Hwa explicitly stated that he would transfer the data-base he had collected to ITF HQ Korea. He has never done this and he will soon be held responsible in the courts.

Q: How will the legal process be implemented in these cases?

A: Everyone knows well that ITF HQ Korea has helped Choi Jung Hwa with devotion for the last 10 years. Because of my efforts Choi Jung Hwa has been able to visit Korea freely since 2008. Since then he has tried to do things his own way but he could not do what he wanted and he finally tried to sue me, the Secretary General of ITF HQ Korea, But, I have counter sued Choi. This case is currently before the courts and Choi has so far provided false information to the attorney. His dishonest act will come to light. When I became suspicious of his motives I recorded our conversations for the last 7 years.

Choi Jung Hwa has also coerced one of the staff working for ITF HQ over to him and established another ITF body in South Korea illegally in 2002 using the resources and knowledge obtained through ITF HQ Korea. ITF HQ Korea has been watching what he’s doing for the last 4 years with forgiving heart and has not taken action against him, However, Choi has never ever been honest about the registration of this body and he will need to provide the evidence required by the attorney.

Furthermore, I will accuse him of fraud with the support of friends and other ITF members around the world. In my opinion he should be investigated on his financial dealings related to the ITF. I will ensure that he will be investigated for what he has done dishonestly and illegally in Korea.

His actions will never be forgiven and it is necessary to establish a strong foundation of the ITF in the homeland of Taekwon-Do. Many practitioners who have worked with Choi have visited Korea under the auspices of ITF HQ Korea and have gained valuable skills and knowledge from this experience. I call for your support to settle down ITF in the homeland of Taekwon-do based on the true tenets of Taekwon-Do of courtesy, integrity, perseverance self-control and indomitable spirit. This organization must be built with transparency that values justice and fairness for all members regardless of race, religion or national boundaries.

I will update you with the legal process in the second interview if possible, and release the innovative operational policy for ITF HQ Korea.

There is a saying “Returned kindness with ingratitude” this clearly applies to Choi Jung Hwa.

See the similarities and differences of two martial art pioneers, separated by race, religion, background and distance! 09/09/2011

Choi Hong Hi (9 November 1918 – 15 June 2002)

Edmund Kealoha “Ed” Parker (March 19, 1931 – December 15, 1990)

Learn how and why these two men from different cultures, different backgrounds, and different religions found that they could profoundly change how the martial arts are looked at and shared and taught throughout the world today. How each man came up with nearly identical theories without having ever met (as far was anyone can tell), how each man seemed to know about the others art just by its descriptions and how each man defined and redefined there martial art of choice that no other (nearly) martial artist has done.The journey that both of these great martial artist took was long ago, during different generations, from different nations, and even different styles. The age difference (13 years) between the two is interesting in that both men “defined” their martial art about the same time. Both men sought to give new names, sometimes recycling names and at other times just redefining terms for their martial art.There are also striking differences. Grandmaster Choi was short, standing only about five feet (152 cm) and was always slight in build, while Grandmaster Parker was 6 feet (183 cm) and always had a stocky build. Grandmaster Choi, commonly called “General Choi” (he was a General in the South Korean Army from it’s birth and until his forced retirement in 1962, Gen. Choi has also especially since his passing been referred to as “Founder Choi, or Ambassador Choi.” Grandmaster Parker was commonly referred to as Senior Grandmaster of the Art (referring to American Kenpo) but his senior students usually just called him by the humble moniker of Mr. Parker or the “old man” (just never to his face).Gen. Choi started to learn Karate (Shotokan) while he was a student worker in Japan in the 1930’s and Mr. Parker started to learn his art of Kenpo after first studying Judo and western style boxing. Gen. Choi learned more out of self preservation as did Mr. Parker. Gen. Choi lived in a world where his own country was occupied by another race of people and Mr. Parker lived in “paradise” but even paradise has its tough areas.Much has been written about both, Ed Parker has been written about more after his passing by many of his direct students like Lee Wedlake and his books like “Lessons with Ed Parker” and Rich Hale and his “The Kenpo Journal” and many others. More was written about General Choi while he was alive oddly enough, this site has what may be the most complete info and interviews of General Choi, GM Kimm, He-young had and extensive interview prior to his death in Taekwondo Times, and has a book on the history of Taekwondo since. One of the most striking similarities is the use of Mr. Parker and his “Marriage of Gravity/Gravitational Marriage” and Gen. Choi’s “sine wave.” Both had seemed to develop this concept in terms of use in the martial arts sometime before the 1980s but both define them in the late seventy or early eighty’s. “Marriage of Gravity” is defined as “The uniting of mind, breath and strength while simultaneously dropping your body weight along with the execution of your natural weapon(s). Timing all of these factors with the dropping of your body weight greatly adds to the force of your strikes. This combined action literally causes a marriage with gravity, and makes vertical use of BODY MOMENTUM while employing the dimension of HEIGHT. (ED PARKER’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KENPO 1992 ISBN 1-4392-4198-8)The term “Sine Wave” Sine wave motion is a movement unique to original Taekwon-do to create maximum force in every moment according to the theory of power. In almost every moment this sinewave is utilized. Sine wave is natural and simple, and often I heard an instructor say: “Simple and natural = beautiful”.

What we actually do by performing this sine wave in Taekwon-do techniques is moving the center of our body mass by means of a motion, which would look like a sinus wave if we would draw it.

There are some key benefits to using sine wave that are linked to the training secrets of Taekwon-Do. Moving our center of mass in the motion of a sine wave requires us to keep our arms and legs bent while the body is in motion. To keep the arms and legs bent during motion we need to be relaxed. Relaxing the body adds speed to a technique because we are not all tensed up with one part of the body working against another. Small increases in speed produces large increases the power of a technique.

Finally, when using sine wave we are dropping our body downwards at the end of the technique with helps us use gravity to our advantage and keep our acceleration building until the point of impact. As you read the two, the concepts are similar, but yet, not exactly the same, although the end result is. These two terms, tend to be the most striking, however, both gentleman, also defined or redefined the terms used. Both sought to standardized the terms used in order to make teaching their arts not really more “simple” but more of an ability to teach as many as possible to promote their arts to the masses.

Absent political considerations there should be no valid reason to exclude Gen. Choi from any Martial Art Hall Of Fame. While his many accomplishments speak for themselves, many do not realize that some of what he did was unprecedented & at times unmatched in the TKD world. However because at various points in his life some of his personal political views concerning his unfairly divided homeland of Korea & certain governmental leaders back home resulted in some negativity that has unfortunately tainted his TKD record.

While Gen. Choi’s personal politics & views are his own, many feel that it should not impact what he did for TKD & how his work continues to influence millions globally in a very positive way. As a result you, as a TKD person, should take the time out to send an email to the new Taekwondowon in MuJu, South Korea respectfully requesting that Gen. Choi receive the highest honor possible for his international impact on TKD. We know 1 thing for sure, without Gen. Choi there would be no TKD. He of course named it. Now there still may have been another Korean Martial Sport that made it into the Olympics, but it would not have been TKD. So every single student of TKD, no matter his or her age, rank or location on this planet, owes some small debt of gratitude to Gen. Choi. PLEASE take a brief moment of your time to send an email to:
halloffame@tpf.kr

It is the least we can do & if not Gen. Choi, then really, who does deserve this honor?

You are not limited with your nominations. You can feel free to nominate anyone you feel is worthy. However if we don’t succeed in getting Gen. Choi honored, it probably will not be possible initially to have any of his followers acknowledged. Also please understand the Taekwondowon put out requests on their Korean language Facebook Page & website. They have also sent a request to the WTF for nominations. So if you don’t nominate Gen. Choi who will? There is no apparent visible outreach to the ITF side. Please do not allow politics to continue to get disrupt the martial art way of TKD’s “DO”! The Taekwondowon needs to here from all of us, as they are on record saying their new TKD Park is for all. So lets please give them the opportunity to demonstrate that wonderful posture with fair & just action by honoring the man who started it all.
Thank you

Lots and lots of things have been said about “what is Taekwon-Do” and how to “spell Taekwon-Do”, Taekwondo, taekwondo, Taekwon do, Tae Kwon Do, TaeKwonDo etc. Of course, going strictly by the way it is written in Taekwon-Do’s country of origin, well, it is just 태권도. It has no space, no capitals and no hyphens. Of course, the same is true when we look at the Hanja (Chinese/Japanese) way to write Taekwon-Do 跆拳道.

So, why do we have so many ways of writing this rather simple three syllable word? Well, we could start with the etymology of this word. Taekwon-Do is not a native Korean term! It is a word of Chinese origin that has as many words in many tongues almost exclusively adopted by Korea. The word also has or parts of the word also have strong Japanese ties. As most know, Korea was a nation state of the Japanese Empire for some time. So it isn’t unreasonable to see that terms of Japanese origin would sneak into the Korean vocabulary. But before we head into the etymology of Taekwon-Do, let’s see what other authors, masters, grandmasters of Taekwon-Do say….

As to why the I.T.F. and the Kido Kwan uses the spelling of “Taekwon-Do” well, simple put, General Choi when as personally by me, said the spelling in English should be “Taekwon-Do” with the emphasis on the – as “Taekwon” is the art, and greeting, and “Do” is the philosophy.

Choi, Hong-hi stated in his book TAEKWON-DO THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE copyright: 1965 that “Translated from Korean, “Tae” (t’ae) literally means to jump or kick or smash with the foot. “Kwon” denotes a fist-chiefly to punch or destroy with the hand or fist. “Do” means an art, or way or method. Thus taken collectively “Taekwon-Do” indicates the punches, flying kicks, blocks, dodges and interceptions with the hands, arms and feet to the rapid destruction of the opponent (Choi 14).

In the fourth edition of Choi, Hong-hi’s book TAEKWON-DO (The Korean Art of Self-Defence) copyright: 1995 and more commonly referred to as the “condensed encyclopedia” he states: “Translated literally “Tae” stands for jumping of flying, to kick with the foot. “Kwon” denotes the fist-chiefly to punch or destroy with the hand or fist. “Do” means an art or way-the right way built and paved by the saints and sages in the past. Thus taken collectively “Taekwon-Do” indicates the mental training and the techniques of unarmed combat for self-defence as well as health, involving the skilled application of punches, kicks, blocks and dodges with bare hands and feet to the rapid destructions of the moving opponent or opponents” (Choi 15).

Cho, Shi-hak also known as Henry Cho in his 1968 book KOREAN KARATE Free Fighting Techniques states that “Tae-kwon is the Korean word for karate recently adopted by the Korean Tae-Kwon do Federation. Tae-kwon do (tae meaning foot; kwon, fist; and do, martial art) is identical to Japanese karate, and the title is a literal description of an art consisting of foot and hand techniques.” (Cho 21)

Chun, Rhin-moon also known as Richard Chun in his 1976 book TAE KWON DO The Korean Martial Art stated that “Tae Kwon Do, “The Art of Kicking and Punching,” incorporates the abrupt, linear movements of Karate and the flowing, circular patterns of Kung Fu with its own incomparable kicking techniques to form an integrated system unique to Korea. (Chun 7, 8)

Son, Duk-sun & Robert Clark in their book KOREAN KARATE THE ART OF TAE KWON DO copyright 1968 says “Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art.” And “Tae Kwon Do is essentially discipline: discipline of the mind, the body, and the spirit.” (Son 1, 5)

Jimmy M.S. Too in his book THE TECHNIQUES OF TAEKWON-DO A Modern International Martial Art simply states “Taekwon-do is an effective and superior form of martial art. It employs hand and foot techniques for self defense.” (Too 28)

B.S. Huan in his book TAEKWON-DO says “TaeKwon-Do is the Korean martial art that was perfected by the Korean TaeKwon-Do movement in 1955 to supersede ancient Korean fighting arts. And “Tae” means to jump or kick or smash with the feet” “Kwon means to block, punch, and strike with the hand or fist. And “Do” means “An art”. (Huan 17)

Clearly, we also have different ways of defining exactly what Taekwon-Do is as well.

The 2013 Midwest Open is less than 6 weeks away. I want to personally invite you to the Midwest Open Taekwondo Championship November 23rd & 24th in Decatur, Illinois. Every year we try to make things better than the last if possible. We will be starting the weekend with registrations & pre-registrations on Friday November 22nd from 5:00-8:00pm at the Decatur Conference Center & Hotel. There will also be plenty of training area for teams to practice before the event.2013 midwest open poster

2013 midwest open packet
Saturday will consist of forms, sparring and grand champion award in forms along with our Chris Canning award and black belt scholarship. New for 2013!!! We have added electronic chest protectors (kpp) for all black belt divisions. The socks will be available for black belt sparer’s to rent for $5 at the tournament.

Sunday will be breaking, weapons and grand champion in those events. Again this year we will be having grand champion in forms, breaking and weapons and anyone that places 1st in their division will be allowed to compete for that award. We have added another Grand champion award in breaking as well. All grand champion awards this year will be 6′ trophies!!! In addition to those awards we will be having our special Chris Canning grand champion award. Instructors please submit names of anyone that you would like to recommend for this award.

We will also be having our Chris Canning $500 scholarship awarded to 1 black belt at the event. Please go to the tournament website for information.

We have worked hard on the tournament schedule to make sure that everyone knows what time they will compete. We have also improved our tournament website by adding spectator passes online. We also have discount competitor rates for multiple family members.

The tournament venue consists of a huge competition area with 6 matted rings and electronic scoring, staging area and separate warm up area. We also have a play area for young ones. The Decatur Conference Center & Hotel also is offering discount rates for rooms for anyone that is at the Midwest Open Taekwondo Championship. The newly remodeled hotel offers 2 restaurants, and indoor pool, hot tub and sauna, sports bar and a video game area.

As we have done in past years if you are an instructor bringing competitors, you will receive 1 free night stay at the tournament hotel for every 10 pre-registered competitors! The top 3 schools will receive an award. All children age 12 and under will receive an award and everyone that wins in forms, breaking or weapons has an opportunity at grand champion awards regardless of age or belt rank.

I am attaching all the tournament information for you and your school to look over. Feel free to pass this on. We are making every effort to assure that everyone has a great experience. The tournament staff will do their best to make sure the event runs smoothly and expeditiously. That all competitors, guests, coaches and officials are treated fairly and with respect. And that competitors get great and fair competition along with a great experience. I am always available for questions, comments or concerns before, during or after the event. If you have any questions do not hesitate to call or email me.

The Kido Kwan and several of it’s members have been featured or written articles that have appeared in Totally Tae Kwon Do, which is a downloadable PDF magazine for Tae Kwon Do enthusiasts across the globe. The magazine dedicated to all aspects of the martial art of Tae Kwon Do, arguably the world’s most popular martial art and Olympic sport. The magazine caters for all styles of the art, so whether you’re Ch’ang Hon/ITF, KKW/WTF or any other style of Tae Kwon Do, then the magazine will be of interest to you. So if you do Taekwon-Do, Taekwondo or Tae Kwon Do, then this magazines for you.